Night Court

Alberta appeals court judges are deciding the constitutionality of our impaired driving laws, where your operator’s license can be seized if you blow over, and held until you get the matter resolved, either by going to court or pleading guilty, if only to get your license back.

Does that make you guilty until you can prove your innocence?

The courts are backed up and it takes some time to get a trial date, so why don’t we just eliminate the court wait?

Why don’t we have a night traffic court where police can bring a suspected stupid slobbering drunk who drove who just blew double the limit, before the judge immediately?

Maybe they could have a doctor there as well, to confirm this guy is impaired.

Perhaps a duty counsel could be there to help the guy stand up.

Or, would that affect his rights, because he’s too drunk to know where he even is?

Instead, the suspect shows up weeks later with a nice suit and tie and his hair combed, while a lawyer casts doubt on the breathalyzer calibrations.

Let me know what you prefer, the status quo row, or to court we go, now.

Comments

Hi Bob…count me in for an immediate court date. The strategies, tactics and technicalities have gotten many a drunk off Scott free. The money and time wasted in court pales to those victims and their families who have been devasted by a justice system that is itself inebriated. I would support an individual’s rights to a lawyer denied and to a delayed trial, for the immediate court date with science and facts as the basis for fair sentencing.

What everyone seems to be missing is the legal alcohol limit is .08, We here in Alberta have a government that panders to special interest groups and charges and seizes at .05. Many many studies have been carried out and shown that .08 is an acceptable level to operate a motor vehicle. This number is generally accepted across North America.
Now if you want to eliminate all drinking you can do that, but that has been tried before. Didn’t work very well, but logic isn’t something that seems to be with the special interest groups. This city would probably support eliminating drinking, they could eliminate all parking lots at bars and think of the jobs you could eliminate. The Provincial government seem set on that goal as well.
Another thing that you are missing is that Police do make mistakes and they make alot of them and that is why people get off. The law was not applied correctly. It appears no one cares about that.

Just think having an immediate court date would sure free up a lot of courtrooms time that could be used for the more important trials like the murder trials. Maybe some of these murderers would actually be sentenced instead of having their charges dropped because they didn’t get to trial in a timely way.

On first glance a night court to deal with impaired drivers sounds like a good idea but when you try to separate the worms in the can you find that more problems are created than are solved.

1. If you are slightly inebriated you may lack the full capacity to speak on your own behalf.
2. You may be unable to contact your lawyer.
3. It creates inequality before the law where one jurisdiction has night court and the next does not.
4. The court would be weighted to deal with drunk driving while unable to deal with other forms of impairment including health issues.
5. It would take police off the streets to appear in court.

These are just those thoughts that immediately come to mind; I’m sure there are dozens of other unintended consequences if we only stop and think about it.

Have the impared driver pay a fine and drive home. That’s about all our courts do anyway. There is not a drunk out there that our judges do not feel sorry for providing he pays for a lawyer to come up with the story of remorse that is sure to be submitted.